The Founding Statement of “BAHRAIN PRESS ASSOCIATION”

9 /7/ 2011

A group of Bahraini journalists held a preparatory meeting on Saturday 9th of July 2011 in London-UK to launch the “Bahrain Press Association”. The meeting was concluded with the release of the following founding statement:

1.              Since the 14th of February 2001, Bahrain has witnessed many political and social transformations. The media in general and the press in particular were subjected to numerous blatant atrocities by the state and security apparatuses. Some of these atrocities were:

•                Direct violations of the personal safety of journalists including arrests, detentions and torture, as confirmed by international organizations such as the International Federation of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

•                The targeting of private media organisations and the attempt to impose the state media version of the events on them, and the fabrication of charges against independent organisation and journalists and preventing them from performing their mission.

•                The deliberate distortion of the media content in all the media outlets in Bahrain, coercing them to echo the official media’s discourse of accusations of treachery, exclusion, and sectarian discrimination, in a flagrant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the International conventions and treaties to which the government of Bahrain has committed itself.

•                The exploitation of media to propagate the government’s illegal political agendas, in a way that pushed it to breach its ethical and professional obligations as independent media.

•                The thwarting of freedom of speech and free expression of opinion in various media and communication outlets including the social media, therefore inflicting serious damage to the values of pluralism and tolerance in Bahraini society.

 

2.              In their preparatory meeting, the founding members approved the name of “BAHRIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION” (a professional, social and cultural association that aims to defend Bahraini media workers). They also approved the initiative to officially register the association in London, and finalise its legal and statuary status as a London-based association. The lawyer and legal representative has been nominated to pursue the legal procedures to establish the association. Furthermore, the association’s representatives in the United States of America and France have been approved.

 

3.              The launch of the “BAHRAIN PRESS ASSOCIATION” was deemed as a crucial response from the side of Bahraini journalists to the events that took place in Bahrain since the last 14th of February, especially considering the violations committed by the Bahraini authorities since the start of the military crackdown of 15th of March until today, and what followed of the daily breaches on the freedom of press in a society that was supposed to be an open society of tolerance and acceptance.

 

4.              The founders reiterated the Basic Law of the association that commits it to all the international conventions and treaties related to press and media freedoms, adopting them as a principal reference for the association.

 

5.              The founders reiterated the Basic Law of the association that commits it towards all the patriotic efforts in Bahrain aiming for promotion of democratic changes based on the three main social/political contracts that were accepted by the people of Bahrain:: the UN 1971 referendum that confirmed the Arab identity of Bahrain and its independence, the 1973 Constitution, and the 2001 National Action Charter. This commitment will be translated by the associations work to defend and support Bahraini journalists and media workers in all aspects of their professional activity.

 

6.              It is hoped that the association will assume major role in defending the freedom of the media, press and journalists in Bahrain, and will provide all the assistance and support to journalists to ensure they have the appropriate atmosphere to accomplish their mission freely, professionally and transparently. The association will provide and issue research papers, studies, periodical reports and media bulletins. It will conduct seminars and activities about the status of journalism in Bahrain in cooperation with various regional and international centres, associations, unions and organisation.

7.              The founding members have unanimously approved the temporary Basic Law of the association. In the meeting, the members elected the association’s interim Board of directors consisting of: Mr. Mohammed Al-Sawad, Mr. Abbas Busafwan, Mr. Adel Marzooq, Ms. Nada Al-Wadi and Mr. Hussein Marhoon. The journalist Adel Marzooq has been elected as chairman of the interim Board of Directors, and the journalist Nada Al-Wadi as a general secretary, both of them have been elected for a period not exceeding six months to represent the founding members until the convening of the first Assembly of the association to approve the final version of the Basic Law and to elect the board of directors for the first session.

 

8.              The founding members highly valued the meetings that the association has conducted with the national and international bodies, organisation and associations that are concerned with the press and journalist’s freedom, and their outcomes of positive results and remarkable prospects for joint cooperation. The preparatory meeting assigned the interim Board of Directors the task of completing the remaining procedures to register the regional and international association with the organisation, bodies, associations and federations concerned with press and journalism freedom.

 

9.              The founding members called on all the Bahraini professional journalists, bloggers, photographers inside and outside of Bahrain to take the initiative and register as members in Bahrain Press Association, and to contribute in its programmes and activities that will be announced by the interim Board of Directors.

 

10.           The founding members offered their sincere condolences to the families of the publisher Kareem Fakhrawi and the blogger Zakariya Al-Asheeri who died during their interrogation by the security authorities in Bahrain. In honour of their memory and their noble national sacrifices, the founding members approved naming the association studies centre as “Kareem Fakhrawi Centre for Media Studies”, and naming the association’s New Media centre as “Zakariya Al-Asheeri Centre for the New Media”.

 

11.           The founding members demanded the immediate release of all the journalists, bloggers, photographers who still are being detained by the security authorities in Bahrain by either the National Guard apparatus or the police centres of the Ministry of Interior in Bahrain. They also called for the authorities in Bahrain to drop the criminal trial against the editor-in-chief Mr. Mansoor Al-Jamri and the previous managing editor Mr. Walid Nowaihedh and head of local news the journalist Mr. Aqeel Mirza, and the editor secretary Mr. Ali Sharifi, who all were working in Al-Wasat daily. The founding members called as well for the dropping of all the trials against the journalists, bloggers, and photographers in Bahrain.

 

 

Bahrain Press Association

London